Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Album Review: Jay Z, American Gangster

Despite the title, I'm not going to write an album review per se. I don't have the time in my life to review each song and get into a lengthy analysis. I'll leave the (pretentious) reviews to Pitchfork Media. Pitchfork, by the way, is probably the first site I visit each day simply because of the sheer volume of their reviews, but holy obnoxiously pretentious, Batman. Three quarters of their reviews are virtually unreadable.

Al that being said, the new Jay Z is one of the better rap albums I have heard in a long while. I've listened to it about three times through now, and it gets better and better. I see this one being a mainstay in my ipod. And while I lam a big fan of rap/hip hop/gangster, i say this adding the caveat that I have not historically been the biggest Jay Z fan, though I've started coming around the past few years. The thing that I like about Jay Z is that he doesn't have the best voice per se, and his lyrics don't stand out against other rappers such as Lil' Wayne, but all in all, he is the complete package. And as Pitchfork artfully said, he's the master of the pregnant pause. You'll have to give the album a listen to understand what this means.

Anyway, on a 1-10, I rate this an 8 and I think it's my third favorite album of the year next to Eddie Vedder and Radiohead. Top songs include Roc Boys, American Gangster, No Hook, and Ignorant Sh*t.

On the same subject, has anyone seen the movie AMerican Gangster yet? If so, thoughts? It's so rare I get to the movies I have to pick them very judiciously.

The other album that I plan to buy and review soon is the new Seal, unless anyone has given it a listen and suggests otherwise.

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